On 18 June 2019, the General Court of the European Union (the “General Court”) handed down its long-awaited judgment in the Micula case (Cases T-624/15, T-694/15 and T-704/15, European Food and Others v Commission, EU:T:2019:423).
The case finds its origins in the investment made by the Miculas, two investors of Swedish nationality, in the food production sector in Romania in the 1990s. At the time of investment, they made use of numerous tax incentives which Romania had put in place in order to attract foreign investment.
In 2005, as Romania prepared to accede to the European Union, the tax incentives were revoked in an effort to conform to EU law on state aid.
The Miculas then instituted ICSID proceedings against Romania based on the Romania-Sweden Bilateral Investment Treaty,